Thiel Owners

Accuracy certainly is in the mix because these speakers sound about as real as a speaker can reasonably get. Because of that I think they walk a fine line and when people get an unfavorable impression of them i think they have not be set up well. I have never found them to be bright, lean, fat, tubby, warm, cold. They are about as spot on in the middle for me as a speaker can get.

I completely agree. None of the Thiels I've heard (CS7.2, 3.7, 2.4, 1.6) sounded overly bright or cool to my ears (altho' the CS1.6 could be strident at high SPLs with certain female vocalists, I think this is related to the distortion at 1 KHz seen in soundstage's measurements).

Shane Buettner's review of the CS2.4 opined that the midrange had a "slightly-on-the-cool-side-of-neutral sound" compared his reference Vandersteens. But I've also heard the Vandersteen 7 (which is a SOTA-level speaker, IMO), 3A Sig, Treo, Quattro, and I lived with the 2Ce Sig II for 10 years. I have no idea what he meant. To my ears, the Thiel CS2.4SE sounds very neutral, resolved, open, and transparent through the midband. In fact, it sounds superbly balanced at all frequencies. When I listen to performers that I've seen live, I have no trouble whatsoever imagining that they are in front of me.

My conclusion is that people complaining about poor SQ from Thiels have only heard them poorly set-up or with poor-performing amps and/or sources.

Beetlemania,
I totally agree with amps and sources making a big difference!I like heavy metal bands and most of my favorites are not mixed well! My 3.7s do the best they can with what I feed them.Once in a while I’ll play a well recorded song and it’s a totally different speaker! I wish they would always sound like that!Somebody said that the 2.4’s are more punchy than the 3.7s and I agreed until I heard my 3.7’s with a class d amp with a high dampening factor(wow)!Blew me away!Thats the bass I wanted from day one! 

as a 35 year, four generation owner of the 2 series,  i would like to weigh in on the  "Thiel is bright" issue.   my first pair,  the cs 2's were bright but not offensive.  once i got the 2.2's that issue really became moot,  and by the time i got 2.4's,  no tipped up sound at all.  i do agree with the fact that these speakers will not be real forgiving with a bright sounding amp.  I have had my best results with the  PS Audio BHK 250 amp and the 2.7'.  a match made in audio heaven. 

Thiels I think have a true to life tonality in general, but their neutrality is  really nice blank slate that you can push in the direction you'd like.

I use tube amps to push them in the direction I like.

Tube Amp Owner Rejoice!

http://thielaudio.blogspot.ca/2006/10/tube-amp-owners-rejoice.html

;-)

I would love to hear Thiels with tubes, that is something I have not had the pleasure of experiencing!

I have never had "bright" in my room with 3.6 or CS6. I even had my 3.6’s at one point hooked up with KCAG and KCTG IC’s, cables that are plenty generous in the upper octaves and it was not a bright presentation, clean yes, bright no....clean and transparent with outstanding dynamics.

I have always had tubes in the preamp stage and room treatments. A tube pre is a match made in heaven, but will always be curious about a tube amp. I wonder if one would push out Led Zepp II the way I like it!